The Cat's Write

Are you participating in Reddit’s Secret Santa exchange?

If so, my gift could be on its way to you!! I’m participating in Reddit’s Secret Santa exchange this year for the first time and I am beyond excited. I’ve had it slighty rough these last few months, and needed something fun to do to create some ‘Christmas cheer’. And it’s totally working! While I do enjoy receiving gifts, I absolutely thrive on giving them. It’s like… my reason for being.

The Secret Santa matching occurred on 27th November (28th for us Aussies) and I am the Secret Santa for someone in Perth, WA. While I obviously can’t reveal my giftee’s identifying details, I can reveal that she has two dogs, her favourite colour is yellow and she loves reading, chocolate and Harry Potter (and also seems like a lovely human being.)

In her christmas card I will supply a link to this post so that she can come here and visit (if she wants to find out who I am) after she’s opened her gifts. Don’t want her to read any spoilers!!

The only down side for me was that my giftee had next to no Reddit history for me to snoop through to enable me to buy her the perfect gift. However, she did fill out her Q&A exceptionally well, which is why I know her favourite colour is yellow.

And luckily for me, Redditgifts encourages:

friendly Internet stalking – emphasizing on the “friendly” part.

So what did I do?

I jumped onto Facebook to see if I could look her up, and I’m pretty sure I found the right person (I bloody well hope so) and was able to find a public post that revealed the names of her two dogs! So now I know their names and rough sizes.

Crazy Christmas dog outfits here we come!

Reddit recommends a minimum of $20USD for our gifts, which equates to roughly $26AUD. I wanted to go a bit crazy and buy her a ton of stuff, but I’m on a budget at the moment, so had to keep it under $40.

Here’s a snapshot of her gifts all wrapped and ready to send!

I’m hoping that my giftee takes a photo of her dogs wearing their outfits (if they fit) and posts on reddit about it so that I can update you all! She may wish to remain private, which is totally OK. I’m also concerned that the weather in Perth will probably be sweltering, so I doubt her dogs will get much of a chance to wear their outfits (unless they have air conditioning).

I’m also crossing my fingers that my Secret Santa comes through so I can share with you my own present. Sadly, it’s not uncommon for people to sign up and never get around to sending their presents, which is why there’s a ‘rematch’ tradition where Redditors can sign up to send extra presents to those who missed out in the first round – and the rematchers do all of this without expecting anything in return! #heroes

If you’re not on Reddit and have never done secret Santa, I highly recommend you sign up and do it next year (there are also other exchanges throughout the year). There’s nothing more fun than buying a gift for a total stranger, knowing that they are eagerly waiting and hoping for a gift, from you. What a perfect way to brighten up someone’s day 🙂

I am the person who was lucky enough to have you as my secret santa. They came in the mail today!! Your gifts were incredibly thoughtful, so thank you! I’m sorry my reddit account doesn’t have anything on it, which forced you into some gentle stalking of me!

I’m glad my Facebook had enough public info about my dogs that you could work out their sizing. I didn’t realise I had their names publicly too, but that’s ok because I talk about them to random people all the time anyway! I posted pictures of them on my reddit thank you so you can see them in their outfits. They’ll hate me for it but guess what they’ll be wearing every year at Christmas time from now on!

The books look very interesting and I’m excited to read them 🙂

I agree with what you wrote in your card to me- we probably would be friends. I love that you have a rescue cat. Animal rescue is something I feel strongly about- my dogs are both rescues and I have been a foster carer in the past (and would so love to be again!)

Lastly, I hope that your secret santa came through for you. I did a gift exchange earlier this year and I never received a gift from my person, so I really hope that doesn’t happen to you! Thank you again so so much for the effort and thought you put into my gifts, and thank you for giving me a chance to ‘meet’ you!

Thank you so much for following that link and stopping by!! And thank you so much for posting such awesome pictures of your dogs in their reindeer outfits, they looked so cute! I hope you enjoy the books. I haven’t read them yet, and I am particularly keen to read ‘Finding Gobi’. I watched a few YouTube videos on the Gobi story, and it’s quite an amazing adventure. You’ll have to tell me if it was a good read or not! 🙂 I was so tempted to open it up a little before I sent it to you that I had to wrap it to stop the temptation!!

I think it’s wonderful that you feel so strongly about Animal Rescue, I definitely got that vibe from the answers to your questions on Redditgifts, which made me feel very privileged to get someone so lovely!! I’ve put a few videos of my cat Sven on twitter if you want to check him out, he’s a bit crazy that one.

I haven’t received a gift from my Santa yet (however, they did send me a message saying it had sent, so who knows what happened). I don’t think I’ll be too upset if my gift never comes, as it was just so wonderful to be able to send a gift to you and see your gorgeous dogs in their outfits!!

First, let me say that this sounds like a great idea. It takes me back to my early education years, during which we would participate in a class-wide Secret Santa. With most kids not being able to keep their mouths shut, it wasn’t really all that “secret”, but it was still a ton of fun.

The person who will received these gifts (multiple!!!) from you will surely be happy. They are so neatly packaged, too. I sure hope you get something equally as thoughtful in return.

However, since I do not how exactly this online SS works, would you tell me how people are matched? Who pays for postage? Do you know the address of the recipient of your gift, or do you all just send it to a warehouse, and then it gets distributed from there?

I am just weary of people’s privacy due to various malicious people here and there. It is obvious that you stalked your prey for all the right reasons, but aren’t you worried about someone stalking you for all the wrong ones? All the worst case scenarios that are flying through my head…

All in all, it’s great to hear that you are bring joy to strangers! Let us know what you got when you get it.

Secret Santa is such a great concept! It brings me back to my early school years when we used to do this for our classmates. However, a lot of people did not keep their match a secret, so it wasn’t really “secret” Santa, but it was still fun to receive gifts.

You put so much thought into this that I am sure the recipient of your gifts will be overjoyed. It’s not just 1, but a whole bunch of gifts!!! And they are so neatly wrapped.

I’ve never tried online/ stranger/ Secret Santa, so I’m not sure how it works exactly. Who does the matching? Who pays for postage? Do you know the person’s address, or do you all send your gifts in to a warehouse and then they get distributed?

As soon as I started reading this post, I started worrying about privacy of the participants and potential for malicious people. And then you mention that you were able to look her up. While I think it’s fantastic that you were so thoughtful and resourceful, and know you did this for only the good reasons, I want to ask if at any point in this process you weren’t freaked out. Oh, all the worse case scenarios that are running through my head right now…

I didn’t do it through Reddit, but a girl I follow on Twitter suggested all of us that she talked to her about our chronic illnesses do a Secret Santa. Like you I had to snoop on my person’s twitter, and she gave a good-ish idea of what she liked. But it seems her favorite things are Mermaids and Unicorns and where I live all of those things are for kids hahaha. The struggle is getting real! Once I finally figure out what I’m sending her, I will drop a picture. Like you I enjoy giving gifts. I mean I enjoy getting them too, but I’m one of those if I know someone is getting me something I have to get them something of equal or more value 😀 If my Secret Santa comes through, I shall share that as well!